Dallas Cowboys

Doubts follow Romo to QB milestone

Cowboys starter set to join Staubach, Aikman in 100-start club

Written byBRANDON GEORGE | STAFF WRITER

Illustrations byMICHAEL HOGUE | STAFF ARTIST

R

oger Staubach and Troy Aikman had Hall of Fame résumés by the time they started their 100th regular-season game for the Cowboys. Staubach had already been to five Super Bowls — winning two — and Aikman had three Super Bowl rings to his credit.

Tony Romo will become the third Cowboys quarterback to start 100 regular-season games Sunday afternoon at Philadelphia, but unlike the previous two, the jury is still out on his legacy.

Related

Romo’s first 99 starts have been marked more by big numbers and colossal failures than postseason triumphs.

Some would argue that Romo’s biggest accomplishment has been maintaining his starting job for this long in a bottom-line league.

The wins haven’t been as plentiful as the cash. Romo signed a six-year, $108 million contract extension this off-season that made him the highest-paid player in franchise history.

Romo, 33, is signed through 2019 and will likely spend his entire career with the Cowboys, just as Staubach and Aikman did.

“You’re always trying to play well enough at your position to play an extended period of time,” Romo said when asked about what it means to reach 100 career starts. “Usually that means you’re doing something right.

“It’s a little more individual-related starting off to prove to yourself that you can play, and Start 100, it’s about bringing the team there and winning and accomplishing team goals. And that’s really what it’s all about, accomplishment.”

Romo has a lot of that when it comes to statistics. He already holds many of the franchise’s passing records and in other categories ranks a close second behind Aikman.

But Romo will have only one playoff win through 100 regular-season starts. Staubach and Aikman had a combined 22.

Is it fair to judge Romo only by his playoff wins and losses?

“It’s not fair,” Staubach said. “But that’s just the way it is. But you can’t do it by yourself. It’s not a one-man game.”

Illustration by Michael Hogue / Staff Artist

No easy path

Staubach and Aikman started their Cowboys careers with feathers in their helmets. Staubach won the Heisman Trophy in college, and Aikman was the No. 1 overall draft choice in 1989 out of UCLA.

Romo? Well, he’s never had it easy.

Romo went undrafted in 2003 out of Eastern Illinois. The kid who grew up in small-town Wisconsin was just looking for a home when the Cowboys took a flier on him that season.

Four and a half seasons later, Romo overtook Drew Bledsoe as the Cowboys’ starter in Week 8 of the 2006 season. And he hasn’t relinquished the job since.

Romo’s first start fittingly came in the national spotlight in an NBC Sunday Night Football game. He led the Cowboys to a 35-14 win at Carolina, and local talk radio hasn’t been the same since.

Romo said last week that he remembered how that 2006 season started. Before the Cowboys’ final preseason game against Minnesota, with Dallas looking to sign its 26-year-old backup quarterback to a contract extension, team owner Jerry Jones and then-coach Bill Parcells put some pressure on Romo.

“I was going into my final year with the team and I was excited just about getting a chance to play at some point and I understood that we had a really good quarterback in Drew Bledsoe, and it’s just not easy to get on the field when you have a guy that talented in front of you,” Romo said. “So I was just wanting to continue to improve, and I had improved each year that I had been there.

“Without having played at all, money wasn’t as big a deal to me as being able to play somewhere, just anywhere. Obviously I preferred here, but with them having a quarterback at the time, I was more excited about the opportunity to go out and see if I could play this game at a high level. So when they brought me in, they timed it up pretty good right before the game, and Bill and Jerry were sitting right next to me and we ended up having some good conversations.”

Romo ended up signing a two-year, $3.9 million deal that looks like chump change these days.

Wade Wilson has been the Cowboys’ quarterbacks coach for all of Romo’s 99 starts. Wilson, who grew up in Texas watching Staubach play and is a former teammate of Aikman’s, said he’s marveled at Romo’s “creativity.”

“The way he can extend and create plays and see things that you have to run back on tape four or five times to see it the way he sees it in a flash,” Wilson said. “To do that after this many years and after this many starts is pretty phenomenal.”

At 33, Romo hasn’t lost his legs or his vision.

“If you’re just a fan of quarterback play,” first-year Philadelphia coach Chip Kelly said, “you kind of sit there and get mesmerized watching him play the position.”

Romo is one of the most polarizing professional sports athletes during a time when social media have provided a mega platform for fans to spew their angst.

“You have to have incredibly, incredibly thick skin,” said former Cowboys quarterback Danny White, who started 92 games with Dallas. “It’s a miracle to me that Tony Romo hasn’t reached his breaking point yet. It would have been real easy. It wouldn’t have surprised me to have seen him … just completely change his game, and that would have been a disaster. But he hasn’t.”

Similarity to White, Meredith

Consider this: Meredith, who started 85 games during the Cowboys’ first nine seasons from 1960-68, was the team’s full-time starter for about 61/2 seasons and had a playoff record of 1-3.

Romo, who entered this year having started for the Cowboys for 61/2 seasons, has a playoff record of 1-3.

White had more passing yards (20,642) and touchdowns (149) in his 92 starts for the Cowboys than Roger Staubach or Troy Aikman had through their first 100 starts. Romo’s numbers trump them all at this stage of his career.

Though White enjoyed much more playoff success than Romo — he was 5-5 in postseason starts — he can relate to the criticism that Romo often gets. White, too, struggled to win big games.

Beginning the year after Staubach retired, White led the Cowboys to three consecutive NFC Championship Games, from 1980-82. Each time, a loss kept him one step short of a Super Bowl.

“I certainly can relate to it,” White said. “Any quarterback who has ever played in the league can relate to it. There hasn’t been a quarterback in the National Football League for any length of time at all who hasn’t had moments like that, who hasn’t had frustrations like that. I heard Joe Montana just booed mercilessly in Candlestick Park early on in his career, and there have been frustrating times for everybody. You go through that.

“Sometimes it becomes deafening listening to the fans and the media, and you have to have the ability to tune all of that stuff out and tune in the people who really matter.”

Romo has proved he has that ability, too. Time and time again.

Aikman started 65 regular-season games after his 100th start before he retired following the 2000 season. And, after No. 100, Aikman basically became an average quarterback. He finished 33-32 with 64 touchdown passes and 55 interceptions over his last 65 starts and produced only one more playoff win.

Aikman has said more than once that Romo is a better quarterback than he was, calling him “far more athletic.” He’s also said he believes Romo will win a Super Bowl before his career is over.

Aikman, who will be in the Fox broadcast booth for Sunday’s game, maintains that Romo is a special player and has said it’s unfortunate a lot of other people don’t recognize that.

Staubach gushes about Romo and his “superior athletic ability.” He calls himself the biggest Romo fan in town and also believes he can win a Super Bowl.

Whether they’re Romo haters or Romo lovers — and there seems to be no in-between — fans can’t deny that he’s kept the Cowboys a ratings darling during a mediocre run that includes back-to-back 8-8 seasons.

Win or lose, Romo always keeps it entertaining with his dynamic ability to elude pass-rushers and his misfortune. Gut-wrenching mistakes at critical times have plagued Romo.

A microcosm of his career played out in front of millions of viewers two weeks ago in a thrilling 51-48 loss to Denver. Romo went toe-to-toe with Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, finishing with a franchise-record 506 passing yards, but he threw an interception in the final two minutes that led to Denver’s game-winning field goal.

Romo, however, still has time to change his legacy.

“The lack of playoff success does not diminish the fact that he’s a winner,” Wilson said. “Individually you can put his numbers up against anybody.

“Now, collectively our teams have not won Super Bowls. Ultimately he’s judged on that. Is that fair? I don’t think it’s totally fair. There have been a lot of great quarterbacks in this league who have not won Super Bowls. He falls into that category right now. That’s not to say that he doesn’t have one or two or three down the road.”■